little things

A list of books - May 15th, 2008 [ « ] [ » ]

via Neil
A very American internet list of books; the top 106 books tagged “unread” in library thing

Bold what you have read, italicize books you’ve started but couldn’t finish, and strike through books you hated. Add an asterisk to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your To Be Read list

To take advantage of my stylesheet and highlight things all the italics and underlines are also bold but that doens’t mean I’ve read them, just that I think it looks better to do it that way. Also opinions:

And then Charlie said:

What an extraordinary mix of books. Neil Gaiman’s almost entire ouevre (Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, American Gods - all three of which I have read, and not a single one of which is any good) in with Ulysses and Moby Dick? I bet whoever compiled the list first is a regular reader of boingboing and thinks that citizen journalism is a credible threat to the news industry. He (I reckon it’s a he) probably reads Wired as well.

Also, I reckon I love James Joyce more than anyone else in the whole world, but even I reckon it’s overkill to have Dubliners, and Portrait and Ulysses in a list of 100 books that you might have started at one point.

I too liked the Lynch film of Dune. They should have an extra mark-up for books that you haven’t read, and probably won’t bother reading because you’ve seen the film, even though you’d like to read them “one day” (for me: Dune, The Three Musketeers, Lolita, all the Austens, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein)

And then Charlie said:

And the “film” of The Three Musketeers that I have seen is obviously Dogtanian and the Muskehounds, although I think I might have watched the tongue in cheek Richard Chamblerlain version.

And then Charlie said:

I see what the methodology was. I apologise for ascribing a personality to an emergent phenomenon. I feel suitably chastened.

And then tom said:

Nevertheless, the personality you described is probably the arithmetic mean of LibraryThing users.

And then tom said:

RE Neil Gaiman. I’ve not read any of his Novels but I’ve read quite a few of his comics and they never really seem to click with me, but that never seems to stop me from buying another. See also Grant Morrison.

And then tom said:

I think the interesting thing about the list is it’s a combination of geek-lit Gaiman, Stevenson etc. and weighty capital L Literature. Half stuff that the “person” wants to believe that one day they’ll read and half stuff that they actually will read.

And then Neil said:

Agreed, a good way of summarising the list. Interesting that of all possible geek lit, it’s Stephenson and Gaiman that are as it were most unfinished, although I can see why. Even if you weren’t enjoying, say, a Pratchett book, it’s not exactly a strain to finish it!

And then Tom A said:

I want to do this list! I will as soon as I have a moment.

The Neil Gaiman novels are atrocious. Whereas the comics are fabulous, though I can see why there are those who criticise them for being self indulgent and predictable. Loving Neil Gaiman is like loving the Beatles song Here Comes The Sun.

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little things is the weblog of tom pearson